Year: 2006

Sort: folk music

Area: Shanxi Province

Serial No.: II-58

Declarer: Jincheng, Shanxi Province

Shangdang bayinhui music is found in many places in Jingcheng, southeast China's Shanxi Province. Bayinhui is used to describe a chuida (wind and percussion) band, an amateur group made up of locals.

Bayinhui music is the most popular form of entertainment in the Jingcheng area, and is played at festivals, temple fair, weddings, and funerals. Bayinhui, literally translates as 'eight instrument group' but is not limited to eight instruments. In ancient China, bayin became a general term that referred to all kinds of musical instruments. The major instruments used in Bayinhui include the gong, drum, cymbal, suona (a Chinese shawm), sheng (a reed wind pipe), Chinese flute and banghu (a Chinese spike fiddle). Nowadays, some electronic instruments have also been added to the list, but they all still fall under the name bayinhui..